topsoil

d'oh! or dough?

Looking back at an old DVD from the season 1991, the year Berwick were in the then British League, I see Berwick beat Belle Vue 60-0 in a meeting run after Belle Vue refused to ride. But the part I found amusing is that even without opposition Berwick still didn't manage to score the maximum 65 points. Can anybody help me out here? Anybody know why they dropped points? Presumably falls or engine failures?

daveallen81 Brilliant, thanks very much

Apologies for piggy baking onto this topic, but relevant because of the year, can anybody please help with the individual scores from the Barrow v Berwick National League meeting on 22 August 1978? Cheers

Thanks for the reply, going to see if I can find out more about the man.

Hopefully with the developments in the stadium ownership at Ashfield, it would be great to see some training days etc set up. The Dale Devils were a good starting point and a pity they had to give up because of financial reasons. Both Edinburgh and Glasgow could benefit enormously with some home grown talent. On a different point, it says above Ross Gilbertson was born in Ayton. Is this correct? I live a couple of miles away from Ayton but I'd never heard of him before. Mind you he was well before I got interested in the sport.

Clearly there is no easy solution to this, but what frustrates me is that clubs don't seem to be even putting much effort into looking at developing a solution. Lets face it, waterlogged tracks are one of the biggest problems facing promotions these days. You only need to look at the Speedway Star during the season or in the season reviews and you see promoters bemoaning the problems caused by rain affected meetings and the financial effect thereof. The advantages to be gained when an effective solution is found are massive so it would be great to at least see clubs putting some thought into it. But as with most things, promoters and the sport in general seem to be missing the fundamental things, like improving safety, creating training facilities, getting tracks into their own facilities, increasing the number of riders in the country, finding sponsorship for the league and major events and instead give more priority to small things which have no effect on the sport.

And in many cases in speedway, the companies who "own" clubs have only one or two shareholders. According to Swedish club Rospiggarna's website, a "membership fee" is around £100 per year. For this I would imagine you would get voting rights on any decisions taken by the club and also other perks, but does not cover admission to meetings.

Hopefully this meeting attracts some big names and even more importantly a huge crowd. It's very important that fans and the sport in general doesn't forget people like Ricky. I would like to see my team Berwick do something each year in Ricky's name, an annual challenge against Sheffield, name the Stars of Tomorrow meeting after him, the Rider of the Year Award, something like that, just to their bit for him.

Certainly didn't put up much of a fight to get the rider. Sometimes things happen for a reason.

I've long thought that clubs in Britain should be run along the same lines as those in Sweden and Denmark, i.e. proper "clubs", run by members. These members pay a subscription or buy shares in the club to raise funds. they then appoint officials to run the club, like a chairman, secretary, treasurer and a host of volunteers to look after the track, turnstiles, track shop, food and drink outlets etc. I get the impression that sponsors are far more willing to put money into a "club" run by enthusiasts, rather than an individual owner. Grants and state funding are also far more accessible for clubs, to improve facilities and buy equipment. Also, financially I think it would serve the sport better. You are more accountable for money belonging to a club, if the funds are not there, they do not get spent. Clubs live within their means. Clubs must present financial accounts to their members and if any member was seen to be spending vast amounts of money unwisely these people would be voted off. All that said I cannot see the current situation regarding ownership of clubs changing, simply because this has been the situation for so long.

Any idea if the Pairs events which ran last season will be ran again in 2015? Enjoyed those meetings. If so, does anybody know the dates? Cheers

There is a Northern Junior League run after PL matches, glad to say Berwick has a healthy junior set up at the moment. I would like to see it compulsory for all clubs to run junior meetings after EL / PL meetings now, firstly to increase the number of young riders in the country and also provide the spectators with more racing. There are a surprisingly high number of spectators who stay behind to watch the junior racing at Berwick.

To bring in new fans at Berwick the entertainment around the racing has to improve as well. There needs to be thought given to either filling in the gaps between racing with either better music, interviews or some other form of distraction, or reduce the time between races and fill the night in with more races, be it in the form of a junior meeting or second half racing.

Brilliant video, beats all the montages Sky put together.

If you really want to promote the sport, meetings on Sky TV are the best place to start in my opinion. I would follow the example Lakeside set a few years ago. They announced free entry and about 7,000 turned up according to Sky. I don't see why more promoters don't follow a similar pattern for TV meetings. If you can get a sponsor to meet part of the costs, get one in. Then promote the hell out of that sponsor, stick their goods in prominent places, get the track staff, start girls in t-shirts or sweatshirts with their logos, get one of their reps. to do the coin toss for heats 1 and 15, an interview with a sponsor with Kelvin or Chris Louis. That way the sponsor gets great exposure and value for money, the TV viewers see a stadium full of fans and any potential sponsors see that the sport is a worthwhile market place.

And? Doesn't matter what number he rode at, he scored a load of points and was the match winner on a few occasions.

I don't know if this would save money or not, but I've always thought it would make more sense for each club to own all the bikes, engines, machinery in a pool and let the riders use these. At least that way, if nothing else, the club has some proper "assets". Okay each one could be specified to each individual rider's liking if needed. These could be transported in a single vehicle, saving a bit of travelling costs. Also, does every rider need his own mechanic(s)? Again, I've always thought it would make more sense to have maybe have a few mechanics all working for the club, on a part-time basis, looking after this "pool" of bikes.

Brains beer, dehydration and 34 degrees Celsius don't mix well. Twocandan, Penchev, the memories :-)

Read the article and have to agree it's nothing that everybody didn't already know. The difference is it came from somebody who it appears is new to the sport and it is interesting to get a view of the sport from an "outsider". Unfortunately, I cannot see a whole lot being done about it. Too many promoters are hamstrung by the fact they are tenants. Speedway has an enormous amount of work to do if it is ever going to catch up with other sports where the facilities for fans are far superior. And there are no easy solutions. I only hope there are enough promoters who have enough energy, enthusiasm and nous and pockets to take the sport forward.

I've recently found a box of old copies of Speedway Star in my parents loft, from back in the 70's and 80's. When you compare these to today's version the difference in night and day. I especially like the coverage of European leagues. I realise that because it is a weekly publication, it is impossible to keep 100% up to date. The magazine does have a twitter feed which can cope with this. Unfortunately I cannot always see the Grand Prix meetings or those on Sky, but I would far rather read about it from a trained journalist, who is neutral, rather than get the opinion of forum members, many of whom have agendas because they obviously support one club or another. I suppose if it wasn't such a good publication, then it would not have survived all these years.

Wasn't there tonight so I will admit I have no idea of track conditions, Only going on what I have read from various riders' twitter feeds. Sometimes you are in a no-win situation. If the meeting had been abandoned before the start, people would have moaned about riders not giving it a go. They try a couple of heats and people moan about why they didn't call it off before the meeting started.

Decent end of season meeting with some standout performances from Ostergaard, Doolan, Vissing and Wells. Vissing and Ostergaard had a couple of battles and two overtaking manoeuvres from Doolan and Vissing off the fourth bend that had you shaking your head. Nasty looking one for Matty, he's had three bad ones this season now. Be nice to finish off the season with a trophy. Wonder how many of the Bandits will be back in 2015? Would be very happy to see the majority back again.

The pay sensible rates and on time policy Berwick employs probably won't attract any superstars to the club but will ensure the club's existence in the current climate and long may that last.

According to the Speedway Star Rospiggarna are set to make a profit of around 1 million kronor for this season. Does anybody have any ideas how the club have managed this? Any hints that can be taken on board by other promoters?